A win like no other

Under siege from teammates, Roger Clemens put his hands over his head and ducked as champagne showered him from all directions Sunday evening.

Astros just kept coming at him, using the same determination and perseverance they had displayed earlier at Minute Maid Park against the Atlanta Braves.

"I can't believe it," Clemens told his teammates as they celebrated their berth in the National League Championship Series. "I thought you guys didn't have any left. I thought we had already used the last bullets."

Thanks to Clemens' gritty three innings of relief, the Astros had enough to win the historic Game 4 of the National League Division Series 7-6 on Chris Burke's walkoff home run in the 18th inning.

"I'm just real proud of those guys," said Clemens, who earned the win in the first postseason relief outing of his career and his first relief appearance of any kind since he was a Boston Red Sox rookie 21 years ago. "We always talk about playing nine innings. This time, we had to play a few more than nine — double that. What can I say?"

A sellout crowd of 43,413 was treated to the longest postseason game in major-league history as the Astros earned the right to face the NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals in the best-of-seven NLCS, which starts Wednesday at Busch Stadium.

In a microcosm of their season, the Astros fell behind early and seemed all but done as the Braves carried a 6-1 lead into the eighth inning. Lance Berkman cut the deficit to one run with a grand slam off Kyle Farnsworth in the bottom of the eighth.

Still, the Braves nursed a one-run lead as Farnsworth retired the first two batters in the ninth. With the Astros an out away from having to travel back to Atlanta for Game 5, Brad Ausmus tied the score at 6 by ripping a 2-0 fastball just above the yellow line in left-center field for a homer.

That's when it really got interesting. Manager Phil Garner mixed and matched his 25-man roster, shifting several players from one position to another until finally moving starting catcher Ausmus back behind the plate from first base after using Clemens to pinch-hit for Dan Wheeler in the 15th.

Clemens was literally the Astros' last line of defense. The only two pitchers remaining were Roy Oswalt, who started and won Game 3 on Saturday, and Andy Pettitte, who was in line to start Game 5.

Even Berkman had to watch from the dugout. He had been replaced by pinch runner Burke after a two-out double in the 10th.

"I don't know how to explain it," Garner said after the Astros won the best-of-five series 3-1 over the NL East champions. "It's been the darnedest thing I've ever seen. It looked like it was over. It looked like we were down and out. We came back. How do you explain that game? It's like the Sunday afternoon softball game where everybody on your block gets to play."

After going 42 seasons without winning a postseason series, the Astros have now carried the wild card into the Division Series and eliminated the Braves in consecutive seasons.

Like two games

Last year, the Astros punched their NLCS ticket in five games. This year, they did it in four games, though Game 4 definitely was the equivalent of two in terms of innings and a lifetime of postseason games in terms of historic value.

The Astros set a Division Series record by using 23 players. The 5 hours and 50 minutes of action also set a postseason record, surpassing the 5:49 the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox needed last year to decide Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

The 42 combined players marked the most used in a Division Series game, and the 14 total pitchers tied the DS record for most in a game.

The grand slam Adam LaRoche hit off Brandon Backe to give the Braves a 4-0 lead in the third was the first allowed by the Astros in the postseason.

"To be honest with you, I think they were just down to the last straw," said Braves starter Tim Hudson, who settled for the no-decision after holding the Astros to six hits and three runs in seven-plus innings. "They really didn't have anybody else to get it to. I don't think they really wanted (Clemens) to come back on two days' rest.

"Regardless who you are, I don't care what kind of warrior you are, what kind of Hall of Famer you are, you're not going to pitch on two days' rest unless they desperately need you to. But he was able to come in, step up, get the job done and make some good pitches."

It wasn't easy, but little has been easy for an Astros club that fell to 15-30 on May 24 before going 74-43 the rest of the way and becoming the first team to go from 15 games under .500 to the postseason in the same year since the 1914 Boston Braves.

After Berkman's double in the 10th, the Astros did not collect a hit until Burke's homer with one out in the 18th.

"Yeah, the game turned into a little bit of a three-ring circus," Burke said. "Things were going on. Rocket coming out of the bullpen, (Raul) Chavez played first base, and (Eric) Bruntlett played like 12 positions. It was just a crazy game. When they posted it was the longest game in postseason history, I didn't realize it. So once you see that, you realize you're going to be part of history."

Wheels spinning

When it was finally over, second baseman
Craig Biggio
, right fielder
Jason Lane
and third baseman
Morgan Ensberg
were the only Astros to play the entire 18 innings in the positions where they started. Ausmus started behind the plate and moved to first in the 13th when Chavez entered in a double switch with Wheeler.

Chavez, who had not played anywhere other than behind the plate this season, moved to first base after Clemens took the mound in the 16th.

"When I came out of the game, I almost felt guilty," Berkman said. "I've never seen a game like that, playoffs or anything. For the bullpen to come through like that and for Roger to suck up those innings, that was unbelievable. That's all we got. He had to pitch."

An all-out effort

Burke sent the sellout crowd to its feet by lining righthander
Joey Devine
's 2-0 fastball into the Crawford Boxes. Most of the Astros sprinted out of the dugout to greet Burke at the plate. Clemens and Biggio, 39, took a little longer on their trip up the steps.

"Two tired old men walking out there," a proud Biggio said. "We were letting all the kids have a good time jumping on top of each other. We were holding each other up."

Biggio was right. The Astros all held each other up, and now they get another shot at the Cardinals, the team that ended their season last year a victory away from the World Series.

"Maybe this game was the perfect example of our entire season, that battle, that grind," Ensberg said. "Then all of a sudden, you've got Rocket going into the bullpen, getting ready, coming back out to sacrifice bunt before going out on the mound. The guy's a flat-out gamer."

Astros Summary

If only Roger had ...

There was only one scenario that could have topped what happened at Minute Maid Park on Sunday,
Lance Berkman
said, and that would have been
Roger Clemens
belting the walkoff home run.

"And if Roger had done that," Berkman said, "they'd have just shut the game of baseball down. We wouldn't even have bothered to play the World Series, because you couldn't have topped it."

Clemens pinch-hit for the first time in his career in his first previous plate appearance and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving Craig Biggio to second, where he stayed when Morgan Ensberg grounded into a double play.

In the 18th, batting right before Chris Burke ended the game with a homer, Clemens swung from the heels on the first pitch — "I almost fell down," he said — and wound up striking out on a checked swing.

Rare feat

Adam LaRoche's 415-foot grand slam off Brandon Backe in the third inning of Game 4 was the third Division Series slam in Braves history.

The other two occurred in 1998, when the Braves swept the Chicago Cubs 3-0. Ryan Klesko, who is now with the San Diego Padres, hit one in Game 1; Eddie Perez got one in the eighth inning of the series clincher.

Oswalt ready

Although manager
Phil Garner
said he was going to use him only as a defensive replacement, righthander
Roy Oswalt
said he was prepared to throw one inning Sunday.

"I knew I wasn't going to be able to go more than one inning," said Oswalt, who went 7 1/3 innings Saturday. "Hopefully I could have gotten some slow curveballs up there and get them to roll over quick."

Oswalt and Andy Pettitte were the only players on the Astros' playoff roster not to appear in Sunday's game.

Ready for anything

So what was the contingency plan for the Astros if
Roger Clemens
ran out of gas?

Garner never expected to play an 18-inning game Sunday, but he made it clear he's aware of his players' abilities and has discussed scenarios in which he might put players drastically out of position.

"I talked to (Lane about it) over the course of the season," Garner said. "I do have a habit of using all the players, and if we get into a situation where you have to do that, you always like to know who you might be able to use in a situation.

"For example, once I use all my players, I'd feel very comfortable having (pitcher) Brandon Backe as a position player."

Miscommunication

In the seventh inning Sunday, the Braves'
Adam LaRoche
was guilty of a baserunning blunder that helped open the door for an Astros comeback.

He had reached base on a single off reliever Russ Springer but while later trying to score from second on a double by Jeff Francoeur was thrown out at home plate.

LaRoche hesitated as he rounded third base and said failed communication between himself and third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez was to blame.

"Yeah, there was a little miscommunication," LaRoche said. "I was planning on staying, with the ball (hit by Francouer) in the left-field corner. I was watching it, and I was planning on holding up at third. "He (Gonzalez) waved me around; I turned it on (too late). It was my fault. I've got to be looking at him, I guess, on a play like that."

Inexplicable lapse

Chipper Jones
, one of the more reliable Braves when it comes to driving in runs, was hard-pressed to explain how he and his teammates managed to leave 18 runners on base in their 7-6, 18-inning loss.

Garner has seen it all

Astros manager
Phil Garner
started at third base and went 1-for-3 with an RBI in what was the longest playoff game before Sunday. Garner was with the Astros in 1986 when they lost in 16 innings to the New York Mets in Game 6 of the NLCS.

"That game was as gut-wrenching as anything I've been in," he said. "That 16-inning game was as good as anything I've ever witnessed, but this one topped it."